“Tune in at 10:00,” popular on air 10 years ago, is far from the main message that local TV stations give their fans on air.

In today’s TV environment of station websites, apps, video streaming and mobile phone alerts, stations are encouraged to be more creative with their messaging and where they find their viewers.

Addressing this issue today was Kathy Haley, publisher of NewsCheckMedia and moderator of 2013 Station Summit’s session “Out-Promote, Out-Market & Outsmart, Online.” She and the panelists focused on successful strategies they’ve used to drive their viewers online, up their ratings and monetize their stations’ content.

Each panelist presented their success stories with website engagement, multiplatform involvement, big event promotions driving ratings and running an independent site.

Marsa Jarrett, creative services director of WYFF 4 in Greenville, SC, presented her station’s plan to get the newsroom involved in social and branding video in the social space.

Her first point was to get everyone – everyone – involved online. “This is total newsroom engagement,” said Jarrett. “Drag them kicking and screaming into it, but it really makes a difference.”

She also noted that the local station needs to stay in the palm of the hand of its fans and viewers, and the best place to make sure viewers know this is to use on air. “Use the power of TV to promote online.”

Sherry Carpenter, creative services director of WJXT in Jacksonville, FL, spoke about her station’s experience rethinking promotion for a multiplatform world. Her first point was to make very specific content promises on all platforms – ensure that the audience knows exactly where they need to go for what coverage, and focus on the exclusives or specialties your station can claim.

One warning she provides is: “Try not to chase the technology, understand the behavior. My company has a big emphasis on digital right now.”

Dan Weig, creative services director of KREM-TV, Spokane, WA, addressed using big events to drive promos and ratings. “Seek out opportunities that will blow up online,” he said, adding that certain local events lend themselves to slideshows or video, so pay attention to what makes sense and what will drive viewers.

One big event KREM created was a car sweepstakes: “You have to give the people what they really want – and that is a new car.” The sweepstakes encouraged people to watch on air and check out the station app to get a word of the day, which they could use to enter the sweepstakes. It helped increase page views and unique visits to the site and upped the ratings on air.

Brett Atkinson, GM of KSL.com in Salt Lake City, spoke to the success of the dot-com, one of the top places to go for news in the region, run by Deseret Media. His main takeaway was that there is no one correct answer for all stations and all station websites – each local station has a local identity and should keep with that for its marketing, online or on air.

“There’s no one magic way,” said Weig. “There are a lot of things that we’ve done through the years. It wasn’t always pretty for KSL.com.”

But now the site averages 5.5 mil monthly unique visitors and is on par with national broadcasters in the online news space.

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